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By Faith Peppers
pepper@uga.edu
U.S. agriculture is facing perhaps its biggest revolution since industrialization, according to  experts at the National Symposium on the Future of American Agriculture.
“The future of agriculture is secure,” said Gale Buchanan, dean and director of UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “What’s not secure is who will produce our food and fiber, and where it will be produced.”
The second annual symposium, held at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Aug. 10-11, brought together researchers, government officials and business leaders from around the country. They addressed the prospects for the industry’s future.
The symposium included a U.S. House of Representatives field hearing to make an official statement for the Congressional Record. Rep. Saxby Chambliss (RGa.), a member of the House Agriculture Committee, chaired the hearing.
Discussion at the symposium centered around structural changes in the way U.S. agriculture does business and emerging technology that will direct the future of the industry.
“We have the potential to profoundly redefine the role of U.S. agriculture,” Michael Boehlje, a Purdue University researcher, told the audience. “We are already redefining the science base for economic development through biotechnology.”
Boehje said U.S. farmers must grow more differentiated crops and fewer commodities. “They  also must provide high-quality products with less opportunity for contamination,” he said.
The greatest new markets for American farmers are far from standard farm products, he said. Whether U.S. farmers focus on growing cloned animals for therapeutic use, soybeans and wheat for nutriceuticals or corn-based raw materials for biodegradable manufacturing, it’s clear that growing food will become less of a priority.
Biotechnology has helped make American farmers more productive, environmentally careful and competitive. Yet many global customers don’t view the advances so positively. The opposition to biotechnology today is similar to that faced earlier this century to hybridization and pasteurization.
“We need to continue moving in this direction,” Chambliss said. “The future will turn when we convince folks about the value of biotechnology.”
Andy Paterson, a UGA geneticist in crop and soil sciences, genetics and botany, reminded the audience that biotechnology is nothing new.
 “Transformation is the process of introducing a gene into an organism,” he said. “It’s been around since 1928.”
Genetically modified crops already are widely used. In 2000, modified agricultural products included 25 percent of the U.S. corn acreage, 54 percent of soybeans and 61 percent of cotton, and some tomatoes, potatoes, squash and canola.
Scientifically, Paterson said, the controversy hinges on two issues: direct effect and genetic pollution. Direct effect measures changes in the original product. Paterson said there is no discernible direct effect of transgenics. Transgenic corn is the same as organic corn.
Genetic pollution encompasses the possibility of contaminating non-transgenic crops, the evolution of superweeds and the effects on humans and other animals and plants. While earlier studies showed a negative effect on the monarch butterfly by Bt corn pollen, later research refuted the claims. However, “the early reports are what people remember,” Paterson said.
“Transformation and genetically modified organisms are two of those rare issues that the public has strong opinions about, and they are absolutely divided,” he said. A Time magazine survey asked if respondents were afraid of GMO foods. Only 0.4 percent weren’t sure; 58 percent were considerably concerned and 37 percent were not concerned.
“The public is not a passive recipient of what the scientific community thought to be simply a scientific advancement,” Paterson said. “It caught the scientific community by surprise.”
Other emerging technologies that promise to make U.S. farmers more productive are spatial technologies like precision agriculture, global positioning and satellite mapping.
“We get excited about the potential, but the products just aren’t what they could be, so adoption is slow,” said Craig Kvein, a researcher at UGA’s National Environmentally Sound Production Agriculture Laboratory in Tifton. “It’s a very tough time to be thinking about investing in new technology. But we have to do it. The test is knowing which ones to invest in.”
A 1999 U.S.D.A. survey of farmers’ use of computers showed the western U.S. is way ahead of the rest of the country, with averages near 65 to 75 percent. Several southern states, including Georgia, are the lowest, with only 25 to 30 percent of farmers using computers.
“Eventually computer chips will be imbedded in everything we do,” said Nicholas Kalaitzandonakes, a University of Missouri economist. “It will be with us in every part of our lives. The rate of innovation is getting faster and the impact of it more significant.”
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